How Apprenticeships Work

What is an apprenticeship?

Apprenticeships are work-based training programmes designed to equip employees with in-demand skills they can apply immediately in their roles.

Apprenticeships are funded by the Apprenticeship Levy, making them a cost-effective solution for developing key data and AI capabilities.

They’re designed for both new hires and existing employees, providing opportunities for growth and development across your organisation. Apprenticeships lead to a nationally recognised qualification, making them a powerful tool for driving capability, retention and long-term growth across your workforce.

Whether you're developing your future leaders, data analysts or AI engineers, apprenticeships offer a structured, high-impact route to upskilling.

How are apprenticeships funded?

Apprenticeships are funded by the Apprenticeship Levy, which your organisation might not be utilising.

If your UK payroll is over £3 million per year, your organisation automatically contributes 0.5% of that payroll into a government-run Apprenticeship Levy account. The government tops this up by 10%, and the funds are ring-fenced for apprenticeship training.

You have 24 months to use these funds before they expire and are lost to the government - so it’s worth making the most of them.

Example:
A company with a £40 million payroll contributes £200,000 per year. With the government top-up, that’s £220,000 available annually, which is enough to fully fund multiple learners.

How much does an apprenticeship cost?

The funding band for each apprenticeship is set by the government and we contract directly with them to receive the funding.

The funding is paid to the training provider (Cambridge Spark) monthly over the duration of the apprenticeship. At the start of the apprenticeship, your HR team will approve the release of the funding from your Digital Apprenticeship Service (DAS) account and then we handle the rest from there.   

Here’s what the funding  looks like for our Data and AI apprenticeships, which can all be 100% funded by the Apprenticeship Levy:

What are the requirements for accessing the funding?

Apprenticeships are regulated by the UK government and we'll support you to identify the employees who are eligible and suitable for an apprenticeship. 

The employee you want to train needs to meet the eligibility requirements outlined in the funding rules. We can guide you through the detail of these and will support your employees to confirm their eligibility. The most important eligibility rules to be aware of are that the employees need to work the majority of their time in England and have been resident in the UK or EEA for the last 3 years.

The employee also needs to be in a suitable role where they can implement their learnings from the apprenticeship directly into work. For career switchers, this means they need to move into their new role at the start of the apprenticeship. Once on the apprenticeship, the employee will need to allocate some of their working hours each week to activities that count as Off The Job (OTJ) hours in order to continue receiving the funding.

What are OTJ hours?

Off The Job hours is time spent during work hours on learning activity that contributes to the apprenticeship. 

Each apprenticeship standard has a minimum number of OTJ hours that an apprentice must complete. OTJ is logged on EDUKATE.AI, our learning platform, with the support of a coach to ensure the activity is eligible. 

OTJ hours will usually come from two types of activity: Structured Learning and Work Based Learning. Structured Learning is the content we will provide, such as workshops, 1:1 mentoring and e-learning content that build new knowledge, skills and behaviour. Work Based Learning is time spent on implementing the learning, resulting in new ways of working that deliver business impact. Your employees will be supported by us to identify activity that counts as Work Based Learning.

The OTJ hours varies per programme and we can provide more guidance as to what the OTJ structure looks like in a typical month. It is key that your employee has your support to complete OTJ hours to learn and implement new skills.

What if I have employees who are not eligible for apprenticeship funding?

Employees not eligible for an apprenticeship can still access the same learning opportunities as their colleagues, but in a different format. 

The Apprenticeship Levy is a great opportunity to build data and AI capability, but we know that not every employee will meet the eligibility or suitability requirements. We offer alternative options to make sure you can maximise building the capability you need and to offer the most flexibility for you and your employees.

You can fund the apprenticeship programme for an ineligible employee using their L&D budget. This gives them the same opportunity as their colleagues and increases the population you can upskill. They will join the same cohort as your other employees, get the same learning experience and gain the recognised qualification at the end of the programme.

For groups of employees, we can explore one of Education Programmes. These offer the same blend of learning and implementation that delivers the impact you need, but with the flexibility to deliver on a shorter timescale and with modularity of the curriculum.